RSQ® Collaborative

The Sullivan Group has organized a group of nationally recognized risk and safety-focused clinical champions from a broad spectrum of medical specialties. In addition to supplying content for TSG courses, members of the RSQ® Collaborative meet regularly to identify emerging patient safety and risk issues and prioritize course development. Together, the RSQ® Collaborative offers over 300 years of clinical and medical-legal experience.

Emergency Medicine

Dan Sullivan, MD, JD, FACEP
Dr. Daniel J. Sullivan is revered by many as a luminary within the healthcare risk management and patient safety industries. Over the past 25 years, he has delivered hundreds of patient safety lectures for clinical leaders across the country at many annual industry forums, including: theAnnual American Society of Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM)Conference and the American College of Emergency Physicians(ACEP) Scientific Assembly. Dr. Sullivan’s passion and vision for patient safety has garnered him the respect of his peers while earning ACEP’s Colin C. Rorrie Jr. Award for Excellence in Health Policy and ACEP’s Outstanding Speaker of the Year Award. Given the recent era of healthcare IT, Dr. Sullivan has directed a significant amount of his attention towards redesigning EMR applications to improve patient safety and clinical workflow. His lectures on heuristics, human factors engineering, and EMR medical liability have been instrumental in shaping the discussion between clinicians and IT administration for many healthcare organizations across the country.
Dr. Sullivan is a Founder, and Former Chairman of the Board at MEA Management, LLC. During his tenure, MEA grew to provide clinical services at 20 facilities across 5 states. He is the Past-Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Ingalls Hospital in Harvey, Illinois (1990–2000) and he is a Past-President of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians.
Dr. Sullivan received his Medical Degree in 1980 from Rush Medical College in Chicago, IL. He completed his Residency at Cook County Hospital in 1983 and was instrumental in establishing the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Cook County Hospital. Shortly thereafter, he earned his Juris Doctorate degree from IIT Kent College of Law in 1987. Dr. Sullivan has been board certified in Emergency Medicine for over 25 years; he is Fellow in the American College of Emergency Physicians, a member of the American Medical Association, and an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Cook County Hospital/Rush Medical College. Dr. Sullivan is a Faculty Member at ACEP’s Emergency Department Directors Academy and has led the risk and safety lecture for Medical Directors over the past 12 years.
Outside of his professional career, Dr. Sullivan enjoys spending time with his wife (Andria) and his 3 adult children.

Surgery

Ronald A. Savrin, MD, MBA, FACS
Dr. Savrin has served as a Professor of Surgery, Chief of Vascular Surgery and Chairman of Surgery. He received certification in General Surgery and General Vascular Surgery and has over 25 years of clinical experience. Dr. Savrin served as President of the Cleveland Vascular Society, President of the Academy of Cleveland and the President of the Academy of Medicine Education Foundation, and as a Visiting Professor at Nagoya University and Oita University (Japan). A pioneer in Diagnostic Vascular Laboratories (1978) and Laser Assisted Balloon Angioplasty (1984), he subsequently developed and directed a Surgical Residency Program which received accreditation by the ACGME. He has published and presented scientific works in General Surgery, Vascular Surgery, and Quality Improvement.
After completing his MBA with an emphasis on Medical Errors and International Comparative Health Care Systems, Dr. Savrin served as a Chief Medical Officer of a clinical genomics company developing clinical computer decision support systems. He served from 2006 to 2014 as the Medical Director of the CMS Quality Improvement Organization for Ohio concentrating his efforts on reducing medical errors, improving patient safety and integrating health information technology into clinical practice workflows. Using a systems approach to Quality Improvement, he directed initiatives to promote cardiovascular health and preventive services, improve surgical care, reduce health care associated conditions, and facilitate transitions of care.

Obstetrics

Henry Lerner, MD
Dr. Lerner is the founder of Newton-Wellesley Obstetrics & Gynecology. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Medical School, he completed his residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco. He is Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Lerner has been in practice for 30 years and has delivered over 9,000 babies. He is the author of the standard book for the general reader on miscarriage entitled, Miscarriage: Why It Happens and How Best to Reduce Your Risks. He has been a national spokesperson on obstetrical issues, having appeared on Nightline, Firing Line, Larry King Live, and numerous other television and radio programs. He has often been quoted by the national media on obstetrical topics, including Time, Newsweek, and US News and World Report.
Dr. Lerner has a special interest in the phenomenon of shoulder dystocia and has researched, written and lectured widely on the topic. His web site, www.shoulderdystociainfo.com, is the world's leading source of information on this important area. In addition, Dr. Lerner has extensive experience with obstetric medical liability. He has served as the Director of ProMutual, a major medical liability carrier, for 14 years, and he has spoken and published on problems confronting America’s medical liability system. Additionally, he has served as a defense expert witness in hundreds of medical-legal cases (90% defense).

Neurology & Stroke

Fred Callahan, MD
Dr. Callahan is a pioneer in the fields of stroke treatment and integrated vascular care. Following postgraduate training in Internal Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Dr. Callahan served a residency in Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He currently has a private practice in Neurology in Nashville, TN, has served on the clinical faculty at Vanderbilt, and is Past President of the Nashville Chapter of the American Heart Association. Dr. Callahan has written many medical publications, holds three patents, and has authored The Next Medical Revolution: Angiology.
Dr. Callahan has certifications from the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Society of Neuroimaging (neurosonology-physics and cerebrovascular disease). Publishing under the name A.S.Callahan III, Dr. Callahan has an extensive list of writings related to neurological topics dating from 1975 to the present. He has participated in PROACT II, a phase 3 clinical trial of intra-arterial thrombolysis, and is a member of the Steering Committee for SPARCL (Stroke Prevention by Aggressive Reduction in Cholesterol Levels), a worldwide trial of atorvastatin for secondary stroke prevention in patients with no history of coronary heart disease.
Dr. Callahan has assisted many hospitals and physicians in the implementation of Acute Stroke Treatment Teams. He joined The Sullivan Group in 2005 to continue the effort of bringing acute stroke treatment to every community in America.

Psychiatry

John Carbone, MD, JD, FCLM
Dr. John Carbone has over 21 years of experience as a practicing mental health provider, specializing in General and Forensic Psychiatry. In addition to his leadership role as Chief of Psychiatry and Mental Health Services for the North Carolina Department of Correction in Raleigh, he was recently appointed by Governor Beverly Perdue to serve on the Commission for Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services.
Before affiliating with the Department of Corrections, Dr. Carbone practiced widely in direct patient care and in psychiatric consultation-liaison capacities in both public and private settings, including mental health clinics, state and community hospitals, multi-specialty offices, and forensic facilities in Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Having earned MD, JD, and MBA degrees, Dr. Carbone has extensive experience in medicine as well as expertise in both law and business. He is admitted to practice law before the State Bar of New Mexico, the U.S. District Court of New Mexico, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; he is also certified to conduct mediated settlement conferences pursuant to North Carolina superior court civil actions. One of his medico-legal publications has been cited in a United States Supreme Court amicus brief.
Dr. Carbone has been a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology since 1995 and a Fellow of the American College of Legal Medicine since 2007.

Communication & Resolution

Doug Wojcieszak
Doug Wojcieszak is a disclosure training consultant who created Sorry Works! and has trained over 30,000 healthcare, insurance, and legal professionals. Wojcieszak is a sought-after speaker and trainer and the Sorry Works! content (books, booklets, on-line learning, etc) has become the “go to” references for organizations dealing with adverse medical events. Sorry Works! and Wojcieszak recently partnered with The Sullivan Group to provide on-line disclo­sure training content for healthcare professionals.
Wojcieszak has had several personal and professional experiences with tort reform and medical malpractice issues. He lost his oldest brother to medical errors in 1998 and his family successfully sued the hospital and doctors with the case settling in 2000. The hospital attor­neys – not the doctors – empathized with the Wojcieszak family, but only after the case was settled and money exchanged hands, and they never admitted fault or apologized for the incident.
Around the same time his brother’s case was concluding, Mr. Wojcieszak became the Executive Director of Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch (I-LAW), a grass-roots, pro-tort reform group. He was able to place over 200 positive stories about lawsuit abuse and capping lawsuit damages with TV, radio, and print media throughout Illinois. During his time with I-LAW, Mr. Wojcieszak also first read and studied full-disclosure methods for medical errors as a way to lower malpractice lawsuits and liability costs as well as reduce medical errors. Mr. Wojcieszak left I-LAW in 2001 and shortly thereafter founded a consulting firm. The firm had several clients, including a pro-plaintiffs group, Victims and Families United (VAFU). He served as the group’s spokesperson in 2004 and touted traditional plaintiffs/anti-tort reform messages such as insurance reform and increased doctor discipline. However, while representing VAFU, Mr. Wojcieszak revisited full-disclosure methods and created a marketing term- “Sorry Works!” - to successfully promote apologies for medical errors as the solution to the medical malpractice crisis. Mr. Wojcieszak was able to place over 50 stories about Sorry Works! during 2004 with numerous media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post Dispatch, CNBC, and a world­wide story through the Associated Press. He noticed that Sorry Works!, while agreeable to many trial lawyers, also attracted the interest and support of many doctors and insurers. These observations led Wojcieszak to create a new, separate group – The Sorry Works! Coalition – in February 2005 solely dedicated to promoting Sorry Works! and full-disclosure methods as a middle ground solution to the malpractice crisis.
The Sorry Works! Coalition has grown quickly to over 4,500 members nationwide, the website has received over 6 million hits, and the group has been publicized in countless popular and trade publications, including Time Magazine, National Review, National Law Journal, and American Medical Association News. Sorry Works! has become a leading disclosure training organization. Mr. Wojcieszak has trained and consulted thousands of healthcare, insurance, and legal professionals on disclosure and apology through his live presentations as well as his weekly e-newsletters, bestselling Sorry Works! Book 2.0, recently released Little Book of Empathy, and webinars.

Triage

Shelley Cohen, RN, MSN, CEN
Shelley Cohen is the educator and consultant for Health Resources Unlimited (HRU), a company she founded in 1997. She is committed to engaging nurses in improving patient care practices and outcomes through her passion for triage education and triage improvement processes. Her experience in emergency nursing spans more than thirty-five years, and she continues to practice as an emergency nurse PRN at Williamson Medical Center in Tennessee.
As an author/co-author of 15 books and numerous articles, Shelley is a nationally recognized speaker on topics related to emergency nursing and nurse leadership development. Her live comprehensive triage course has been presented internationally to thousands of ED nurses, and her monthly Triage Tips can be found posted in EDs from coast to coast.
Shelley and her husband are associates for the Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation. They sponsor hunting events on their property for Purple Heart Heroes, engaging soldiers who struggle with life-long emotional and physical challenges.

Hospital Medicine

Cynthia Fenton, MD
Dr. Cynthia Fenton is a practicing hospitalist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, in the Division of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Fenton received her undergraduate degree from University of California, Los Angeles, in Mathematics/Computer Science in 1985 and her MD from University of California, San Diego, in 1989. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at UCSF in 1992 and served as Chief Medical Resident in 1992-1993.
Throughout her career, Dr. Fenton has applied her passion for analytics and improving systems to her work in hospital-based clinical care and medical education. She joined the faculty of the Department of Medicine in 1993. While on the faculty at UCSF, she has been an esteemed teacher in the inpatient setting, the clinic, small groups and lectures. She received an honorary AOA award from the medical school for excellence in teaching and patient care, and has held many positions of leadership in education and clinical care. She has served as Director of Medical Consultation, Assistant Chief of the Medical Service, and the first Associate Chair for Education in the UCSF Department of Medicine.
In 2003, Dr. Fenton directed and co-created Intersessions, a required UCSF third-year medical student course covering evidence-based medicine, ethics, quality improvement and healthcare systems. More recently, she has continued her work as a hospitalist at UCSF, and serves as CEO and President of Strategic Health Partners, a consulting firm that focuses on developing analytic-based solutions to healthcare industry clients. Dr. Fenton is board-certified in Internal Medicine.

Patient Satisfaction

Doug Finefrock, DO
Dr. Doug Finefrock, an Emergency Medicine (EM) physician, has dedicated his career towards teaching healthcare personnel effective ways to improve the patient experience. His academic career began in 2006 as a faculty instructor of medical students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY. He then became the Assistant EM Residency Program Director at Mount Sinai- Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, NY, where he was voted "Faculty Teacher of the Year" in his first year.
Dr. Finefrock currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the Emergency Department (ED) at Hackensack University Medical Center in NJ, an ED that sees 120,000 patients annually. He is also the Director of the EM Residency Program that he founded in 2013. The program is now the largest in NJ with 36 total residents.
Dr. Finefrock founded the Council of EM Residency Director’s “Patient Experience Education and Evaluation” national task force to improve patient communication training. Dr. Finefrock lectures nationally on patient communication techniques that help to improve patient satisfaction scores and the overall patient experience.
Dr. Finefrock has partnered with The Sullivan Group to create the online, video communication PatientSET™ Program that is designed to improve the patient experience as well as HCAHPS scores.
Physicians and nurses in over 300 hospitals throughout the country have now used the PatientSET™ Program training.
Visit BePatientCentered.com to see video training examples or to contact Dr. Finefrock.

Emergency Ultrasound

Andrew French, MD
Dr. Andrew French is a board certified Emergency Medicine physician who serves as the Associate Director of Emergency Ultrasound for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Denver Health Medical Center; he is also a clinical instructor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He completed residency training and an Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship at Denver Health.
Academic interests include bedside ultrasound as it relates to standard of care and risk reduction as well as musculoskeletal and critical care ultrasound. Dr. French has also been involved in the curriculum design for the University of Colorado School of Medicine correlative ultrasound anatomy component of the Clinical Foundations course. He also serves as course co-director for the medical student bedside ultrasonography elective and co-director for the month-long ultrasound "mini-fellowship" for The Children's Hospital of Colorado Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship.

Toxicology

Leon Gussow, MD, FACMT, RDMS
Dr. Gussow is a board certified Emergency Medicine physician and a Fellow in the American College of Medical Toxicology. He also holds board certification in Internal Medicine. He is currently a Voluntary Attending Physician at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, and has academic positions at Rush Medical College and the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. He has served on the hospital-wide credentials committee of Stroger / Cook County Hospital and on the oversight committee of the Department of Emergency Medicine.
Dr. Gussow has authored many chapters and articles on the subject of medical toxicology, and writes the monthly "Toxicology Rounds" column in Emergency Medicine News. He is a medical consultant to the Illinois Poison Center. In addition, he has lectured nationally on the subject of medical response to disasters involving patients exposed to chemical, biological, and radiological weapons.

Emergency Ultrasound

John Kendall, MD
John Kendall, MD has been practicing and teaching bedside ultrasound for over 15 years. This journey began when he helped develop and implement the ultrasound curriculum at the University of Southern California Emergency Medicine program. He has been the Director of Emergency Ultrasound at Denver Health Medical Center since 1996. Along the way, Dr. Kendall created and authored the CD-ROM entitled "Ultrasound in Emergency Medicine and Trauma," and he was co-editor of the textbook Practical Guide to Emergency Ultrasound.
Dr. Kendall is a former Chair of the ACEP Ultrasound Section, and he started the ultrasound fellowship at Denver Health Medical Center in 2005. He currently holds the academic rank of Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Patient Safety & Risk Management

Arnold Mackles, MD, MBA, LHRM
Dr. Mackles is a nationally recognized authority on risk management, patient safety, and performance improvement strategies to reduce medical errors. His qualifications include a Pediatric Residency at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, a Neonatal Fellowship at Cornell University Medical Center, an MBA from Nova Southeastern University, a Licensed Healthcare Risk Management designation from The State of Florida (Risk Management Licensure Program from the University of South Florida) and a Bachelor's degree from Syracuse University.
Dr. Mackles, a former hospital-based physician with 20+ years of successful experience, has served on the Board of Directors of The Florida Society of Healthcare Risk Management and Patient Safety and as an instructor with The University of Florida Risk Management and Patient Safety Program. For the past six years, he has been a sought-after national CME speaker and trainer. Dr. Mackles is an advocate for patient safety and regulatory compliance leading to increased standards of quality care and decreased exposure to risk.

Emergency Medicine

Saif Nazir, MD, FACEP
As President of Emergency Services for the MEA Division of TeamHealth, Dr. Nazir works closely with our clients to ensure healthy business relationships. He is responsible for all aspects of the division's business, including financial solvency, physician relations, revenue generation, marketing, corporate development, and shareholder and client relations.
Dr. Nazir is a board certified Emergency Medicine physician and a Fellow in the American College of Emergency Medicine. Having received his training at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, he has maintained an academic position there since 1990. As an emergency physician for 20+ years, Dr. Nazir has been the Medical Director of Ingalls Emergency Services for 12 years and the Chairman of the Department for the past 10 years. He is on several hospital committees and is the Chairman of the Patient Safety and PI Sub-Committee and the Co-Chairman of the Credentials Committee. He has been a strong advocate for the Stroke Program at Ingalls Hospital and was the Champion for the start-up of the Program.
Dr. Nazir is the Past President of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians (ICEP). His previous roles at ICEP have included Secretary/Treasurer, Member at Large and Chair of the Education Committee. He has been on the Board of Directors for 6 years and has been a Councilor for the College for 10 years. Dr. Nazir is also an expert on Observation Centers. He has been the Medical Director of the Short Stay Unit at Ingalls Hospital, which he started in 1995, and has lectured nationally on observation medicine and cost-effective practice of Emergency Medicine.

Hospital Medicine

Steven Pantilat, MD
Steven Pantilat, MD, is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco; the Alan M. Kates and John M. Burnard Endowed Chair in Palliative Care; and the founding Director of the UCSF Palliative Care Program. Dr. Pantilat is also the Director of the UCSF Palliative Care Leadership Center that trains teams from hospitals across the country on how to establish Palliative Care services. Dr. Pantilat is Board Certified in Palliative Medicine and Internal Medicine; he is a Soros Foundation Project on Death in America Faculty Scholar; he is a recipient of a K-23, Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award from the National Institute on Aging; and he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in 2007, studying palliative care at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, University of Sydney, and Curtin University in Sydney, Australia.
Dr. Pantilat is also a hospitalist, and is a nationally recognized expert in Hospital Medicine and Palliative Medicine. He is the Past President, a past member of the Board of Directors, and the former Chair of the Ethics committee for the Society of Hospital Medicine; he is also a member of the inaugural class of Fellows in Hospital Medicine. Dr. Pantilat is a full-time faculty member in the Program in Medical Ethics at UCSF, and serves on the UCSF Medical Center Ethics Committee.
The UCSF Palliative Care Program that Dr. Pantilat directs encompasses clinical, educational, training, and research programs in palliative care. The clinical program includes an interdisciplinary palliative care consultation service; a 2-bed inpatient palliative care unit at the UCSF Medical Center called the Comfort Care Suites; and the Symptom Management Service, an outpatient palliative care service based at the UCSF Cancer Center. Educational programs include courses for undergraduate medical and pharmacy students and graduate nursing students, electives in palliative care for medical and nurse practitioner students and medical residents, and training for physicians in practice.
Dr. Pantilat has published widely in the areas of physician communication, palliative care, and Hospital Medicine. He is currently involved in several research projects focused on palliative care, including leading a quality improvement collaborative for hospital-based palliative care services, surveying interpreters on their experience with and needs regarding working with patients receiving palliative care, and understanding the palliative care needs of people with heart failure.

Emergency Medicine

Ingrid Pautz, RN, MAOM
Ingrid Pautz is a Registered Nurse and holds a Masters Degree in Organizational Management. Ingrid is President of Ingreva Consulting, LLC, an independent risk management and emergency services consulting firm. She has recently been appointed as the Executive Director of the Emergency Physician Insurance Program in Phoenix, Arizona. Ingrid facilitates and provides educational and clinical support for the Emergency Physician Insurance Program as well as for Banner Health.
Ingrid was previously an emergency nursing director for a 95,000 volume (pediatric and adult) Emergency Department at Banner Desert Medical Center, and served as an interim director at Banner Estrella Medical Center. She has served in leadership roles for over 25 years of her nursing career. Ingrid actively serves as a nursing leader mentor and coach. Ingrid has helped dozens of Emergency Departments across the country to successfully improve their operational, service, quality, and clinical performance.

Placental Pathology

Drucilla Roberts, MD
Drucilla Jane Roberts, MD, received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Health Science and Technology in 1985. She went on to do two years of an OB/GYN residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), then finished her training in Anatomic Pathology in 1990 at the same institution. She followed this with a fellowship in Women’s and Perinatal Pathology, also at the BWH. She pursued her interest in developmental biology with an NICHD-funded post-doctoral fellowship in Genetics at the laboratory of Clifford Tabin at Harvard Medical School. She joined the faculty at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1994 when Obstetrics returned after a 50-year absence, and has remained there since.
Dr. Roberts has published in both developmental biology and perinatal pathology. Her interest in global health began with her work in the Women and Infants Transmission study in the early days of the HIV epidemic. She is currently working with others on autopsy studies, malaria in pregnancy, and stillbirth studies in Africa as well as teaching perinatal pathology wherever she can.

Pediatric Emergency Medicine

Steven Selbst, MD
Dr. Selbst earned his medical degree at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. He completed his training in Pediatrics and served as Chief Resident in Pediatrics at the Babies Hospital, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Selbst then joined the Emergency Department at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where he worked for fifteen years. He served as Director of the Emergency Department at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia from 1988 to 1996.
Dr. Selbst is currently Professor of Pediatrics, Jefferson Medical College and Vice-Chair for Education, Department of Pediatrics. He is the Director of the Pediatric Residency Program at Thomas Jefferson University / A.I. duPont Hospital for Children. He is also an attending physician in the Emergency Department at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware.
Dr. Selbst is actively involved in teaching residents, fellows and medical students. He has authored more than 250 original research papers, book chapters and review articles. His research in the field of Pediatric Emergency Medicine has focused primarily on injury epidemiology and management of pain in children. He has also authored several papers on medical-legal issues in pediatric emergency medicine and is the editor of the Medical-Legal Section for the journal Pediatric Emergency Care. Dr. Selbst is the editor of three textbooks: Pediatric Emergency Medicine for the House Officer (Williams and Wilkins, 1988), The Illustrated Textbook of Pediatric Emergency and Critical Care Procedures (Mosby, 1997), and Pediatric Emergency Medicine Secrets (Elsevier, 2008). He is the co-author of the textbook Preventing Malpractice Lawsuits in Pediatric Emergency Medicine (ACEP, 1999). He serves on the Editorial Board of three journals (Pediatric Emergency Care, Contemporary Pediatrics, Clinical Pediatrics).
Dr. Selbst is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Emergency Medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Selbst served on the Committee of Medical Liability, American Academy of Pediatrics, from 1990-1996. He serves on the Executive Committee of the AAP Section on Pediatric Emergency Medicine and is Chair-Elect. Dr. Selbst also serves on the Board of Directors of the Academic Pediatric Association (APA) and is Secretary of the organization. Dr. Selbst has won several teaching awards. He has been invited to speak/lecture all across the country and internationally.

Child Abuse & Neglect

Lynn Sheets, MD
Dr. Sheets is a board-certified child abuse pediatrician who has over twenty years of experience in evaluating children who are suspected to be maltreated. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and section chief of the Child Advocacy and Protection division and the Medical Director of Children's Hospital and Health System's Child Advocacy and Protection Services (CAPS).
Community partnerships have played a major role in her professional activities and accomplishments. Before January 2006, Dr. Sheets was the medical director of a hospital-based child abuse program in Kansas City, Kansas, for 17 years. There she worked with community partners to found the first Child Advocacy Center in Kansas, and was active in many community boards and committees. Since moving to Wisconsin, Dr. Sheets has participated in many community projects including, the Child Abuse Response Team, Wisconsin Child Death Review Team, Fostering Hope and Project Respect, the community-based dating violence prevention initiative. She is a co-founder of the Wisconsin Child Abuse Network (WI CAN) to improve access to high-quality medical information in child abuse investigations.
In addition to her clinical experience and community activities, Dr. Sheets is an educator on child maltreatment. She is active in the Education Core of the Injury Research Center at MCW and teaches medical students, residents and fellows about violence, intentional and unintentional injuries, child maltreatment, and child abuse medical mimics. She was instrumental in developing the accredited child abuse pediatrics fellowship at MCW, which is one of only a few nationally. Her research interests include child abuse prevention, early detection of abuse, and abusive head trauma. In her clinical role, she provides child abuse consultations and expert court testimony for maltreated children. She has a strong commitment to child maltreatment and violence prevention efforts in Milwaukee and Wisconsin.

Emergency Medicine

Thomas E. Syzek, MD, FACEP
Dr. Syzek completed his MD degree and residency training in Ohio. He is a board certified Emergency Medicine physician, a member of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, and a Fellow in the American College of Emergency Physicians. His career spans 33 years as a family and emergency physician in Colorado and Ohio.
Dr. Syzek wore many hats with Premier Physician Services, a regional emergency physician group practice with over 400 physicians. He served as Chief Clinical Risk Officer and President of Pinnacle Medical Protective, SPC, a physician liability insurance company in Georgetown, Grand Cayman. Dr. Syzek is VP of e-Learning Services at The Sullivan Group, a leading provider of patient safety, risk management, and performance improvement solutions for healthcare professionals.
Dr. Syzek is a frequent author and speaker on the topics of patient safety, risk reduction, litigation support, physician group risk management, and physician liability insurance.

Obstetrics

Anne C. Urmanski, BSN, BSEd, RNC-OB, C-EFM
Anne Urmanski, BSN, BSEd, RNC-OB, C-EFM, is an accomplished healthcare professional with 19 years of nursing experience, inclusive of work as a registered nurse and clinical product specialist. She is a Cum Laude graduate of the Medical College of Georgia, holding a Bachelor of Nursing, with certifications in In-Patient Obstetrics and Electronic Fetal Monitoring. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Education (Health Promotion and Behavior) from the University of Georgia. In the early part of her career, Anne gained clinical experience as a labor and delivery nurse at the largest private birthing center in the United States, boasting more than 18,000 deliveries per year. For the past 12 years, she has been an OB clinical product specialist with concentrated strengths in sales support, product analysis and design, and client management. Committed to improving the quality of perinatal healthcare, Anne has focused her interest on the efforts of software to enhance efficiency and safety. Her specialties include both enterprise and niche obstetrical clinical information systems, as well as decision support and risk management tools designed to improve patient care and outcomes for mothers and their infants during childbirth. Anne is an active member of national and local level AWHONN (Association of Woman’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses), Georgia Perinatal Association, and the Georgia Nurses Association.

Pediatric Emergency Medicine

Todd Zimmerman, DO
Dr. Zimmerman is the medical director for EmergiKidsSM, the Pediatric Emergency Medicine program of Alexian Brothers Health System, and was the CMO and co-founder of PIRRGA/MDMC, a single specialty risk retention group.
Dr. Zimmerman is board certified in Pediatrics and in Pediatric Emergency Medicine, and he is an expert witness in the fields of Pediatrics and Pediatric Emergency Medicine. As an independent medical consultant, he has developed content and architecture for both paper and electronic pediatric medical record charts.

Behavioral Emergencies

Leslie S. Zun, MD, MBA
Dr. Zun is the Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, and Chairman & Professor of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science / Chicago Medical School in North Chicago, Illinois. His background includes a medical degree (MD) from Rush Medical College and a business degree (MBA) from Northwestern University's JL Kellogg School of Management. He is board certified in Emergency Medicine by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Zun was a chief operating officer and acting chief executive officer for a 200-bed hospital in Chicago.
Dr. Zun's research interests include healthcare administration, violence prevention and behavioral emergencies. His publications have addressed the administration of the hospitals and Emergency Departments, physicians' bonus and incentive plans, and quality improvement topics. He has presented his research and lectured on these topics both nationally and internationally. He is a board member of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine and is active in many specialty organizations. Dr. Zun is medical review officer and is responsible for employee health.

Medical-Legal

John West, JD, MHA, CPHRM, DFASHRM
Mr. West holds a law degree from Chase College of Law, a master’s degree in Health Services Administration from Xavier University, and a bachelor’s degree (Biology) from the University of Cincinnati. He holds the designation of distinguished fellow of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM). He received the Presidential Citation Award (2011) and the Distinguished Service Award from ASHRM (2001), which is its highest honor. He has also been a certified professional in healthcare risk management since 2006. Mr. West has broad experience in loss prevention, including professional and general liability, occupational safety and health, and environmental impairment. He was certified in industrial hygiene by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene in 1983.
Mr. West has been the author of the “Case Law Update” column, which appears quarterly in the Journal of Healthcare Risk Management, since 1994. He is a regular speaker at national and regional risk management meetings and has published numerous articles on risk management.

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